POWER SOLUTIONS

DATA CENTER TECHNOLOGYInformation Life-Cycle Managementin a Virtual Data CenterGrowing acceptance of commodity, standards-based hardware and server virtualizationis leading many organizations to consider dramatic changes in their IT infrastructure.These changes are expected to transform the enterprise data center into well-definedbuilding blocks of virtualized compute, storage, and network resources. In the resultingIT environment, business unit managers should be able to establish performance,availability, compliance, and data classification requirements for enterprise applications.The intelligent IT infrastructure will be designed to automatically provision thenecessary hardware and software resources once business requirements have beendefined, without further administrative intervention.BY NIK SIMPSON AND MATTHEW BRISSERelated Categories:Data center technologyInformation life-cyclemanagement (ILM)PlanningStorageSystems managementVirtual data centerVisit www.dell.com/powersolutionsfor the complete category index.Despite advances in many areas of data center technology,IT organizations are still grappling with growingcomplexity and cost. At the same time, administratorsare under pressure to control total cost of ownership forthe IT infrastructure. One promising solution is a datacenter infrastructure that is designed to adapt to changingbusiness and application requirements by automaticallyprovisioning resources—both hardware and software—as demand requires. The goal is to develop a datacenter that is built upon well-defined, standards-basedbuilding blocks of virtualized compute, storage, and networkresources.In such a virtual data center, when business unitmanagers roll out new applications they will establishbusiness requirements for performance, availability,compliance, and data retention. In response, thevirtual data center will have the capability to provision thenecessary hardware and software resources to meet businessrequirements without further administrative interventiononce those business requirements have beendefined. The virtual data center will be designed to monitoreach application to ensure that it meets the establishedbusiness requirements (or updated requirementscaused by changing business conditions)—dynamicallyadjusting data center resources as required. The resultis envisioned as a closed-looped management systemthat will have the capability to become increasingly selfmanagedover time. 1The concept of the virtual data center is powerful,but to exploit its full capability, enterprises require a strategyfor information life-cycle management (ILM). Theneed for ILM derives from a basic tenet of the virtual1For more information about the virtual data center, see “Progressive Degrees of Automation Toward the Virtual Data Center” by Jimmy Pike and Tim Abels in Dell Power Solutions, February 2005;www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps1q05-20040228-Pike.pdf.66DELL POWER SOLUTIONS Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, August 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. August 2005